Lost and Found Again
by Zebra Princess
Summary: AU - When the Dwarves are captured by the Elves in Mirkwood, one is left behind - Kili has been dragged off by the spiders and is left for dead. Starving and weak, he is found by Legolas and Tauriel and brought back to the Elven Halls. Will they let him live? And is he ever going to see his brother again? The story may continue into the barrel escape and farther.
1. Chapter 1

**'Sup, ladies and gentlemen! You can all call me Dweebo Ringlicker, because apparently that's my dirty Hobbit name. I will shout out to anyone who comments something that I like. Don't be afraid to give constructive criticism! Read, review, follow, favorite, do whatever! Just don't murder me. That would be mean.**

**All I ask is that you consider this story. :)**

**Beware: this book contains DoS spoilers.**

**Thanks and happy writing! x815**

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"Quiet, all of you!"

Thorin's shout echoed throughout the forest, silencing the group of bickering Dwarves. He looked around, heart hammering in his chest.

"We're being watched."

The Dwarves didn't seemed concerned with his words; the forest's illusional air had affected them more than Thorin would have liked.

At first nothing happened.

Then something caught his eye, sneaking up behind him. He reacted too late.

Thorin winced as something sharp pierced his side. A numbness swept over him, blurring his vision and dulling senses. He stumbled away, vaguely aware of the shouts and cries of the other Dwarves. Touching the spot that had been stuck, he realized that he wasn't bleeding. Instead of finding a red substance on his fingers, his hand came back blotched with a thick, black liquid.

Poison.

He took a clumsy step and keeled over, collapsing on the leaf-covered earth below him. Big black shapes hovered in sight, and he remembered some old tales and ghost stories that told of giant poisonous spiders.

Thorin choked and spluttered out a hoarse cough. So that's it, then. Giant spiders that live in the enchanted forest Mirkwood, coming to eat Thorin Oakenshield and Company.

What a failure of a quest.

He managed to croak out a faint laugh. Then the spider venom overtook him and he fell into unconsciousness.

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**Duh duh DUH!**

**For those of you who have seen DoS, you should recognize this. I hope. Don't worry if you don't, though.**

**I promise my next chapter will be longer. Actually, much, much longer.**

**Read, review, follow, favorite! Whatever!**

**Thanks and happy writing! x815**

**(a.k.a Dweebo Ringlicker)**


	2. Chapter 2

**'Sup, Hobbit fans! Here's the first real chapter of my story. Last chapter was kind of small, and I forgot to label it properly, so let's just call it a prologue, 'kay?**

**Thank you, ktikat131 and RascalKat! I honestly did not expect to find any reviews for my story, and you two made my day! I appreciate your comments so much :) thanks again and I hope you keep reading! I promise, this chapter will be better. **

**Read, review, follow, favorite, whatever! **

**Thanks and happy writing! x815**

* * *

Darkness.

That was all Kili could remember. It was dark; it was painful. Numb, uncomfortable darkness.

His eyelids felt like they were glued shut. Somewhere along the way he realized he was no longer paralyzed, and he lifted a hand. His head spun and his limbs felt like noodles. Something white and adherent constrained him. Whatever had happened to get him in this sticky (pardon the pun) situation, he wasn't sure.

Someone gently jabbed him in the shoulder. "_Kili_."

Who was calling his name? He felt a hand shake his shoulder and with a jolt, he fully awoke. His eyes flew open and he gasped for breath, struggling to break himself out of the sticky white substance that was wrapped around his body.

A pair of hands helped him tear away the wrapping. He blinked in the daylight and saw Fili helping him, his hands quickly - somewhat frantically - pulling off the stuff.

With a lurch of his stomach, Kili realized that he had been wrapped in spider webs.

"Kili," his brother muttered, pulling him in a quick embrace. "You alright?"

"Just wonderful," Kili grumbled.

Fili grabbed his hand and pulled him up. The other Dwarves were hastily getting themselves out of the webs, but bits of the sticky stuff still clung to their clothes and hair. Kili looked at his own body and realized he was no better.

Something scuttled among the trees. Kili squinted, but his eyesight had become dull and his mind was sluggish, like he was still under the spell of the spider poison that had subdued him.

"Fili," he muttered, tugging at his brother's sleeve, but Fili didn't notice. Thorin, disgruntled and grouchy, was barking at the Dwarves. ". . . FIND the Hobbit, for Durin's sake! Look everywhere!"

"Hey, Fili," Kili said again.

". . . if we lose Bilbo, then we have no burglar!" Thorin hissed, but it almost sounded like he was talking to himself.

"Fili . . ."

The other Dwarves were calling Bilbo's name, spreading out to try and find the Hobbit. Kili couldn't help but feel like they were being watched by something. Whatever it was, it didn't seem friendly . . .

He rubbed his eyes. All his thoughts seemed to be floating in wet cement right now.

Had his mind been a bit sharper, he might have remembered the spiders.

"_I'm up here_!"

The Hobbit's voice rang through the trees, coming from up high in the canopy. The Dwarves quieted immediately, searching for where Bilbo's voice was coming from.

"I'm up -"

His voice was cut short by the angry shriek of an oncoming army of enormous spiders. They poured out from the wall of underbrush, curved fangs bared and black hair bristling. Kili reached back and notched an arrow in his bow. How he managed to not lose his weapons, he wasn't sure.

Fili pulled out his swords, then resolved to using only one. Kili was beside him, mindlessly shooting arrows into approaching spiders, but their number of opponents was growing to the point of almost being overwhelming.

"Grab a leg!"

"Thorin, I'll help you!"

"_Ori_! For Durin's sake, kill it!"

Fili slashed at a giant spider, one larger than any of the others. It flew forward in its momentum, knocking Fili off his feet and burying him under its massive limp body. The breath left his body in a soft _whoosh_.

Someone kicked the dead spider's carcass away. Fili blinked sweat and dirt out of his eyes and found himself being roughly hoisted up by Dwalin. He had no time to thank him, because almost immediately the old Dwarf was running in the other direction, taking on the next spider with only his fists.

"Fili, _help me_!"

He turned towards the sharp cry of his brother. Kili was just a few feet away, wrestling with a fat spider that was trying to pin him against the forest floor. His bow and sword had skittered out of reach during the fight.

Fili clambered over, ignoring the fact that he had twisted his ankle very painfully in his own battle. He lifted a sword and slashed it at the spider's behind. The giant creature screeched, turning towards him. Kili spat out a mixture of blood and dirt as the spider's foot struggled to gain a foothold on his face, which would have been amusing for Fili had it been a different situation.

With another stroke of his sword, he finished the beast off and helped Kili to his feet. "Behind you," Kili warned as he reached for his bow.

Fili turned just as a spider's fangs snapped in his face. He dived away and slashed at the hairy legs that were reaching forward to hold him. The spider was small and quick and managed to avoid Fili's attacks, darting this way and that. Fili shook his head and growled at his slowness of mind.

Behind him, the other Dwarves were shouting and letting out battle cries in their effort. They were seriously outnumbered.

_For Mahal's sake, can't we just have a break from danger?_

He heard a small yelp from Kili, who was right next to him.

Distracted by this, he reacted slightly late to the spider's next move. A hairy leg whipped out, knocking his sword from hand. Fili stumbled back, reaching for his other sword as the creature advanced. It sped forward on eight spindly legs like someone had turned it on speed mode - or, plainly, attack mode. Fangs snapped, eyes glittered. This had to have been the most horrid opponent any Dwarf had faced in the history of Durin.

With a small curse under his breath, Fili leaped away, narrowly missing a poison injection from the stinger, and yanked a knife from the sheath in his vambrace. He threw it forward and it embedded itself in the spider's neck. It released an ear-splitting screech and lurched away, body writhing. With a last effort, it charged him, spitting madly. Fili sidestepped and dug another knife into its skull. The beast collapsed and wriggled on the ground before slowly going limp, legs curling into its underbelly.

Fili looked down and saw spider blood splattered on his arms and hands. He wiped the disgusting stuff off on his armor.

"Come on, keep up!"

He heard his uncle's shout and moved to join him and the other Dwarves. With a lurch in his stomach, he remembered Kili's cry. Kili! He turned to face his brother and help him -

But Kili was not there.

Fili froze, staring at the empty spot where his brother had been standing not two minutes ago.

_He was right next to me._

"Kili?" he called tentatively, his voice pitch higher than usual. Silence.

He suddenly saw something moving among the trees; something very unlike a giant spider. A person, hair light blond, leaped from the highest branches of the canopy, sliding under the belly of one spider and slicing it along the way. He stood gracefully and notched an arrow in his bow, pointing it right at the face of Thorin.

Upon closer look, Fili realized it was an _Elf._

"Do not think I won't kill you, Dwarf," he said aloud to Thorin. Then, voice laced with mockery, he added, "It would be my pleasure."

Fili spun around, but more Elves were appearing from the wall of undergrowth, already poised. He saw an Elf warrior just a few feet away with the arrow pointed right at his heart.

"Search them," the blond Elf - undoubtedly the leader - ordered to his comrades.

Kili was still nowhere in sight. "Thorin," Fili called to his uncle. He meant for him to know that one of his Company was missing. But one of the Elves pulled him away and began to search through his vest, plucking out knife after knife.

Fili felt overwhelmed with worry. He could only imagine that the spiders had taken Kili - did he not protect his brother enough? Had could he have not noticed?

Of course the spiders had taken Kili. And Fili had done nothing.

He barely noticed as the Elf disarmed him, tossing his large collection of weapons into a pile on the leaf-covered ground. All he wanted to was to go out and find Kili. If he began to look soon, he'd have a hundred times better chance of success.

The moment the Elf took his last knife, he turned and peered at the treeline, eyes searching for movement. Even if it was only a spider, at least there would be hope. He could follow those foul creatures to their nest, and maybe he'd find Kili there . . .

The leaves rustled.

It was the last of the spiders; they were retreating back into the forest, eyes gleaming with hatred. They were reluctant to admit defeat, but they would not risk their lives for a pack of smelly Dwarves, especially when Elves were around. Food would have to be found elsewhere.

Fili noticed the spiders among the trees. He just needed to know if they had his brother. "Kili?" he shouted, moving forward. "Kili!"

A hand on his shoulder roughly yanked him back. He looked up and found himself looking into the face of a she-Elf with dark red hair, eyes narrowed with mistrust. Her gaze held no sympathy.

"What's wrong with this one?" asked the blond, striding over. Fili felt small under the stare of these two menacing Elves.

"Nothing, Legolas," the she-Elf said, eyes never leaving Fili's. "Just get him back with the others."

Legolas raised an eyebrow and steered the young Dwarf away from the treeline (and away from Kili) to where the others were being held.

The Elves binded their hands and began pushing them into single file. Fili felt anger rising; Thorin was right about Elves. They were no better than he had described. How could they feel they had the right to capture any unwary travellers that happened to be passing through their forest? What kind of a people did that?

And his brother was lost.

He bit his tongue. He realized that Bilbo was still nowhere to be seen; hopefully he had not been taken by the spiders as well. Or maybe . . . maybe Bilbo would find Kili . . . ?

No. He couldn't depend on the Hobbit; the chance of it was slim at best.

Fili tried breaking out of his bonds. The rope was, of course, Elven; even the strongest Dwarf wouldn't be able to snap it. He winced as it rubbed against his skin, making his wrists turn red and irritated. The she-Elf hadn't taken too much care while tying him - the rope was much tighter than neccessary. Somehow Fili felt like that wasn't completely unintentional.

His mind drifted until they reached the Elven gate, a narrow bridge that led to tall white doors. The Elves herded them inside and immediately brought the Dwarves to their cells. Fili was about to be locked inside his own when the Elf grabbed his arm, reached into his vest, and pulled out one more knife.

He let out a growl of exasperation. That was his last knife; one he kept specially concealed.

The Elf kicked him inside, and the cell door clanged shut with a _click_ of the lock that made him flinch.

He paced in his cell as the Elves began to disappear down the halls, clenching and unclenching his fists. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Thorin being brought away by a pair of Elf guards, headed for Mahal-knows-what. Surely, they wouldn't kill him . . . although the thought of his uncle being executed by Elves made Fili uncomfortable with the situation.

Though, surely, not _all_ Elves were heartless.

He saw the blond Elf, Legolas, walking down the hall. As he passed, Fili made a quick decision. He wouldn't be able to save his brother from this cell, but maybe one of the Elves could.

It was probably the dumbest choices he had ever made. But he had to try.

"Hey," he called, holding the bars. "You left one Dwarf behind."

The Elf stopped and turned, eyes cold. "What do mean by that?" he asked suspiciously.

Fili swallowed. "You left my brother behind, back at the spider's lair."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"He's my brother. He's younger than me. 'Got a bow and arrow, and dark hair, and he's not old enough to have a beard yet -"

"I don't care," said Legolas, and he turned to leave.

"Can't you just _look_ for him? For Mahal's sake, he's barely old enough to protect himself and he's certainly not strong enough to defend himself against giant spiders -"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Legolas repeated flatly. Then he promptly turned and disappeared around a bend, leaving Fili with a new knot of dread in his stomach and even less hope than before.

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**Poor Fili. I feel you, man. (Well, if my sister got lost in a forest, I'd be shouting with joy. But let's not talk about that, shall we?)**

**The next chapter is going to ****_really _****get exciting. I hope you all like! I really enjoy writing this, so I hope you feel the same about reading it. **

**Read, write, follow, favorite, whatever :)**

**Thanks and happy writing! x815**


	3. Chapter 3

**'Sup, readers! Here's the third chapter! **

**Read, review, follow, fav, whatever :)**

**x815**

* * *

Kili ran. He ran and fought numbly - stabbing, tripping, catching himself, stumbling through the dead undergrowth as his pursuers scuttled after him. He didn't think - he just did.

His mind was set one just one thing, just one task: to survive.

He clutched his bow in one hand and fought with his sword in the other. His quiver full of arrows had been lost long ago, but he couldn't bear to leave his bow behind. Fili had helped carve it in the forge that Thorin had worked in. The bow was the last piece of Fili he had left.

He also had his mother's runestone, tucked safely in his pocket.

He couldn't have been less than a mile from the spider's lair. They had dragged him off in the middle of battle, most likely as a last resort. He'd make a puny meal, but a meal wasn't what the spiders wanted; they hungered for revenge. They wanted that insufferable pack of Dwarves to pay.

Kili shook his head at the hopelessness of his predicament at the moment. He was lost. Terribly lost. And he still hadn't escaped the spiders.

One of the hairy creatures shot forward with a piercing screech. Kili slid and stabbed at its underbelly, narrowly missing a fang in the face. He stood, slashing his way forward without a thought to whether or not he had completely finished his last victim.

Kili felt his energy slowly waning. His arm shook from the effort of lifting his sword over and over, his breath labored and choppy. It must have been the aftereffects of the spider's poison.

He lifted his sword, knocking a spider out of the air. A stinger scraped his arm and he let out a quiet yelp in pain, falling to his knees. The spiders suddenly stopped - twenty pairs of gleaming eyes watched him, waiting.

The spider fang had drawn blood from his arm, creating a long, thin gash running from the crook of his right elbow down to the palm of his hand. Something other than blood was seeping from the wound as well; a dark pus-like substance that clotted at the surface of the gash and mingled with the blood. Spider poison.

The world spun and the trees swayed. He blinked tears away - or was that blood in his eyes? He wasn't sure. Everything was strange.

He used his sword to pull himself to his feet, but the ground was no longer a floor of leaves and dirt. It was a carpet of writhing bodies; bits of webs clung to their faces and hands. Dwarves, Elves, Men, and even animals lay on the ground, their gaping mouths stretched wide open as they let out a horrific chorus of wailing and begging and shrieking all at the same time -

A human girl, her eyes bulging in their sockets, crawled forward to where Kili stood shaking like a leaf. She reached out a bony hand and clawed at his legs, scratching his ankles with her long, mud-caked nails and trying to pull him to the ground. He kicked the girl's hand away and stumbled through the nightmarish crowd.

Kili blinked. The dead bodies disappeared, their wailing silenced all at once. The forest was back, and so were the spiders. He was almost relieved to see those hairy beasts again.

The poison was already causing him hallucinations. _Just delightful_, he thought.

They were still waiting in the trees, watching his every move. The fact that they we're no longer attacking him was the most unnerving part. He teetered through the foliage, tripping over his own feet. How long would he last? A few more minutes? He'd be lucky to have an hour.

A falling leaf before him bloomed to the size of a shield. The blood on his arm was no longer blood; it was a steady flow of tiny red spiders, crawling up his forearm, dripping from his fingers and onto the ground. Kili frantically tried to wipe them off, but each touch made the pain in his wound radiate even more.

Up ahead, Thorin stepped into view from behind a tree. His face was smudged with the grease that used to cling to him whenever he worked at the forges back in Ered Luin. "Giant spiders have a special liking for Dwarfling meat," he said casually, like he was reading aloud from a very cruel children's book.

Thorin's face changed. Now he was the human boy Inghard, the one that used to bully small Dwarflings back in Ered Luin. Kili felt like a child again when he saws Inghard's face here in the forest. Even though Kili had grown since the last time they saw each other, Inghard still towered above him. He stormed forward, his face twisted in anger. "You," he growled. "You left me! You let the enemy take me!"

Kili opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Inghard changed. Fili was now before him instead. He stood in a clearing, blond hair gleaming under the rays of sunlight that shone through the thick canopy.

"You let the enemy take me," he repeated.

Kili found his voice. "You're just a hallucination."

Fili was busily wiping some sort of material off of his arms and clothes. Kili realized that his brother was covered in dried blood and cobwebs, and he felt nausea rising to his mouth.

The fair-haired Dwarf snickered. "I'm right here, brother. Won't you come help me?"

Did he need help? Kili wanted to comfort his older brother badly, but he was hesitant.

_This is a hallucination_, he reminded himself.

He turned away to run. The _real_ Fili could be in trouble. He stopped short when the false brother spoke again.

Fili was now openly bleeding; it trickled from his nose and from the scrapes on his skin. His hair was matted with it, and an arrow protruded from his thigh. He spread out his arms, like he was making a welcoming gesture. "Come here, Kili. _Help me_."

He made a move forward.

Within a nanosecond, Fili shapeshifted into something much different. Azog the Defiler took his place among the trees. The orc roared in Kili's face, making his blood turned cold -

Then Azog turned into a spider. A _real_ spider.

Kili felt the sharp point of the spider's stinger stab his abdomen.

His vision began to fade.

Between the dancing spots and blurry sight, Kili could see the spiders retreating back into the foliage. They had gotten what they wanted - revenge against Dwarves.

Kili curled up in the tall, fat roots at the base of the tree. In seconds, his eyes rolled up in his head and he was consumed by the dark.

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**Oh my gawd! Creepy hallucinations, right? **

**I hope you didn't get scarred reading this. Please don't murder me.**

**Thanks and happy writing! x815**


	4. Chapter 4

**'Sup, readers! Here's chapter four, more excitement! Sorry it took me a bit to write this.**

**Dear RascalKat: in response, I must say that I was thinking of Caesar Flickerman in the Hunger Games while writing last chapter. Katniss's hallucinations did sort of encourage it.**

**Well, I hope you like! Please tell me if you do!**

**x815 **

**-Dweebo R.**

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Fili paced his cell impatiently. He reckoned it was evening by now, when the sun was nearing its setting time. Thorin still wasn't back from wherever the Elves had taken him . . . Fili was deeply concerned by this. They wouldn't kill him. They wouldn't.

Thorin, Kili, and Bilbo missing.

He paced, sat down on the cold stone floor, then got up and paced again. He hated this. Hated it. Being stuck in a prison and unable to help. Fear gripped his heart like a fist, and he was beginning to feel the weight of all his troubles. How could everything be so terribly wrong?

Fili put his hands on the bars of his cell door. The corridors were empty except for the occasional Elf guard that would come by to check on the captives. Most of the other Dwarves were sleeping, their snores so loud that they almost drowned out the soft trickling sound of the nearby waterfall. He wished he could sleep like them. He was much too restless at the moment.

He stepped away from the bars and shuffled around some more.

"I can hear you pacing, lad," said Dwalin, who was in the cell next to Fili's. "For the love of Durin, get some sleep."

Fili was too distressed to answer.

"I know Kili's missing. I'm not a fool."

Fili's shoulders drooped. "He's probably dead."

"You doubt his skills, then?" Dwalin replied. "I think he's got more fight in him than you give him credit for."

"He's a dimwit."

"He's a warrior, too."

Fili knew the old Dwarf was trying to comfort him. He didn't want comfort.

"Just get some rest, lad."

Fili opened his mouth to make a sharp retort, but the sound of footsteps coming down the passage stopped him. He leaned against the cell door, craning his neck.

Relief flooded him when he saw who it was. "Thorin!" he exclaimed.

Thorin was being escorted down the narrow pathway by two Elf guards. One took him by the arm and tossed him into one of the last available cells, jangling the keys tauntingly as they left. Fili wanted to ask what had happened, but he was too far away.

Murmuring arose from the other Dwarves. They were relieved that Thorin was back, but their problems were long from being solved. They had all noticed the absence of Kili, including Thorin himself. And unless Bilbo had managed to elude the spiders and sneak his way into the Elven halls, the likeliness of escaping and continuing their journey was slim at best.

In short, they were still doomed for the time being.

Fili didn't realize this. He felt more confident with his uncle around. Thorin always had a plan, didn't he? An opportunity to escape would probably show up sooner or later, and maybe the Hobbit would have part to play. Fili felt his adrenaline pumping as he began to form an imaginary plan in his head. If they escaped, they could find the spider's lair and look for Kili. The Elves would be fools if they were so intent on capturing the Dwarves that they felt the need to follow them into the spider's lair. What would their objective be, anyway?

The halls darkened as the sun set in the twilight sky. Fili sat against the stone wall and finally gave into sleep.

* * *

The moon light was bright enough to shine through the forest's canopy and upon the leave-covered ground, turning it a soft silvery color. Tauriel squatted down and touched the spider tracks that lay before her. The nest was near. She had hardly ever gone this far into the lair, but something had to be done; the spiders were getting bolder with each passing day. She feared that some of them had come from Dol Guldur, the old abandoned fortress that now lay in ruins. But that was beyond the borders of the Greenwood, and Lord Thranduil had forbidden it.

She ran silently, thinking about Dwarves. She assumed they had been travelling along the Elven Road, but they would have had to have gotten absurdly lost to have winded up in the spider's lair. Sometimes she wondered if they really had brains in those thick skulls of theirs.

Tauriel stopped as she sensed the presence of someone else behind her. She touched the hilt of her sword, ready to jump into a fight, but a familiar voice caught her off guard. "Tauriel?"

She spun around and relaxed her shoulders. "Legolas."

He had his bow and knives, like he had the same idea in mind. He strode forward. "You are missing the feast."

"So are you," she replied, eyeing him with a faint smile on her lips. "Have you come to hunt spiders as well?"

"Something of that sort," he answered with a playful tone, but his eyes betrayed him. There was another thing that was bothering him.

Tauriel frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." His voice was terse.

She decided not to push it any farther; clearly he wasn't willing to tell her what was on his mind. Changing the subject, she asked, "How long do you think the feast will last?"

He grinned. "All night, at the very least. My father will expect no less."

She laughed out loud. Then, remembering the reason she was out here, she turned and looked beyond the trees. "If we are to reach the spiders, we should hurry. We do not have long before the sun rises."

He nodded in agreement. "Yes, we should destroy the spider's nest as quickly as possible."

Tauriel somehow found that to be an odd response, but she made no mention of it.

They ran light and swift, occasionally climbing trees to look ahead or clearing the trees of spider webs if an area seemed too thick with it.

Legolas couldn't help but glance over at Tauriel once in a while. She was beautiful even amidst a dying forest; her long red hair seemed to glow in the moonlight, and her eyes were sparkling with determination. He often thought about their relationship, how they had started as troublesome friends that went off on daring adventures as naïve Elflings. Now he thought they were more than just friends. He didn't care for the fact that she was only a Captain of the Guard, and that she was too low for him. None of that mattered.

He had never held any secret back from her. He would never wish it upon her to feel shut out or unwelcome. But this was different; he didn't want her to disapprove. He certainly didn't want their friendship to weaken.

"I sense we are near," Tauriel declared, peering into the distance. Legolas thought so as well; the webs had thickened considerably, almost to the point of making it impassable.

Something passed over them, blocking the moonlight. Legolas pulled Tauriel into a thicket of leaves, gesturing to above them.

A huge spider as large as an Eagle crawled from the shadows, as silent as the wind. Legolas began to hear the hiss of other spiders approaching, their fangs clicking and clattering in excitement. He noticed that they were dragging along figures wrapped in webs, animals that had fallen victim to their last hunt.

When the parade of spiders had passed, Legolas leaned in to whisper to Tauriel. "We should not make ourselves known immediately," he said. "There are too many to take down if we attack them by -"

He stopped in mid-sentence, eyes fixed on something in the foliage ahead. "Legolas?" Tauriel whispered nervously. "Is something the matter . . . ?"

She followed his gaze to a spot in the bushes, but she could not see anything from where she was positioned. "What do you see?" she asked him in a gentle undertone.

Legolas's face changed expressions in a split-second. He blinked, immediately straightening his manner. "I see nothing." He glanced at Tauriel's disbelieving face. "Come, we should form a plan quickly."

"Tell me what's going on first," she insisted.

"It is not your concern," he snapped back, but he deeply regretted it a moment later. She lowered her eyes, clearly stung by his words.

He tried again with a more gentle tone. "You shouldn't worry yourself. I assure you, there is nothing going on."

She met his eyes. "Is that the truth?"

Legolas sucked in a breath, but he answered with as little hesitation as he could. "You can trust me, Tauriel."

She said nothing for a moment, then shook herself. "Yes. We shouldn't waste time. Do you have a plan, Legolas?"

He nodded. "I think we should draw them out and kill them while they're vulnerable. Then we can destroy the nest."

Tauriel pursed her lips. "We must be careful not to attract attention to ourselves."

"We won't." Legolas reached behind his back and took an arrow from his quiver. "Let's go."

The moon had just begun its descent as the two Elves split up, ready to begin stage one of their plan. Legolas knew what do.

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**You like?**

**Dwarf angst, Elf secrets, ahhhh! **

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**Thanks and happy writing! x815**


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